What to do after the server shuts down

That's going to be the real question in the next few years when everyone has migrated to the next title. Will the game be supported via private servers or will ANET consider preserving it for players as a single player campaign?

I've been through this all before coming from PSO-PSU, so I'm very aware of how things can change at the last minute without our approval.

Wait to see what actually happens after launch.

GW is a niche title, but GW2 is designed to be far more popular.

If that's the case people will be snapping up copies of Eotn + 1 campaign at least just for access to the HoM. I'm not saying they'll actually play the game, but there will likely be a big enough market in IRL cash and GW2 gold for GW1 items to keep copies moving for at least a few years after launch.

That's only IF GW2 is popular though.

We still have to throw NCSoft's corporate strategy into the mix. We already lost Tabula Rasa and Dungeon Runners (kinda boring anyway), but how well they value an original title after the sequel hits, it ain't something I would trust them with.

Being a "niche title" (and I don't agree with that statement in the slightest) is exactly why GW succeeded. It didn't make the mistake MMOs make and copy WoW; indeed it wasn't really an MMO. It was a new, creative game of high quality, and appealed to over five million players.

Sure, it's dead now, but that's only because the developers have abandoned it to move on to GW2. Indeed, knowing GW2 is on the way is the reason a lot of people didn't buy GW1; they figure playing GW1 is pointless now (and it is).

GW2 designed to be far more popular? Sounds to me more like they're trying to compete with WoW.

I'd expect them to keep it running. They should sell a fair number of new copies of GW1 to people who want to develop their HoM.

The GW servers shutting down isn't much of a concern, unless GW2 fails miserably. I don't see that happening, myself, but of course, it's too early to do anything more than speculate.

ANet made a clever decision in connecting GW1 and GW2, as it will help keep GW1 relevant even after GW2 is released. I expect (and if I recall, it has been mentioned by folks at ANet) existing players will be given reason to revisit GW1 at least now and then; and of course, with the HoM, new GW2 players will have reason to pick up GW1.

That said, most any game has an expiration date... It just depends on what else is out there at the time a game begins to go stale, I think.

This depends a bit on what you mean by "server". GW doesn't exist on one physical server (computer). It's more like an app running on a (or several) server farms. With the way GW is structured - being all instanced - there is no big virtual "server" to maintain. ANet just needs to maintain the database and have a small core app running on a farm. Instances are generated on the fly as they are needed, so GW1 can simply sit in a corner of a server farm taking up relatively little space (depending on usage) - which is why they say it will continue to run even after GW2 comes out.
Basically, GW need not go down until ANet itself goes down. Of course, ANet needs to sell new stuff to maintain the revenue to keep it's server farm(s) running.
It's possible, of course, that, if they stop selling GW1, that the usage could go down to the point where they might consider killing GW1 altogether, but it is sold with the promise of unlimited play, so they would have to keep GW1 active for at least a few years.

It appealed to ppl enough to plop down the money for five million copies. How many of those copies belong to ppl /w multiple accounts, and how many of those copies were used for a month or two and then forgotten is up for debate.

It'll bite them in the ass once GW2 is released. IF it's popular. Even if the HoM bonuses turn out to be purely cosmetic, as the majority of the GW community expects, the number of players running around with dwayna/grenth costumes shows that ppl are more than willing to plop down time and money for stuff like that.

Competing /w WoW seems to be the general consensus on how to be far more popular, yes.

On the other hand, for every piece of news that doen't exactly fill me /w love for ANet (Higher level cap, anyone?) They seem to throw something out to keep me in the wait and see camp (Doing away with quests in favor of events.)

That's kinda the point. Selling five million accounts is pretty damn good.

Perhaps, but the fact remains that they didn't buy it.

I thought everyone realized by now that competing with WoW doesn't end well?

I don't think you're arguing what I'm arguing.

I could really care less about the state of GW right now. It's keeping me entertained and that's enough.

My only point is that GW has the potential to be profitable and to stay alive even after the GW2 release. Whether people buy it today, or buy it after the release of GW2 is no skin of my nose.

Doubt the servers are going anywhere. Go look at Diablo and Diablo II. They generate no money at all for blizzard yet they still remain accessable via battlenet. Anet can do whatever they want to the servers that run GW. But it'd be foolish to take them down without valid reason. I foresee playing gw long even after gw2 has been out.

Posted from my iPod touch.

after gw1 shuts down.....I hope to not be playing video games at all .....

but I believe it will be a few years---after gw2 is released ......for the HoM stuff (as was mentioned)...and there will still be a few of us who will still play gw. So thats a few years into the future, I doubt anyone really knows what they will be doing then!!

after the server shuts down I'll most likely play a different game. yep. there you have it.

Some diablo 2 servers were repurporsed for WoW thou. And there were rumors that fair bit of GW1 infrastructure was given to Aion.

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Thing is, GW1 is very cost effective to run, they can always tailor amount of servers to population size. And unlike other games, reducing server amount is not highly visible.

Computional power increase every month, and costs go cheaper and cheaper, less players online... i belive the servers can still up forever for cheap... they must find some way to pay some people for manutention... hardware and software...

What to do after the server shuts down?

Get a life?

But seriously, you'll play another game or find something else to do. It's not the end of the world. And who says you'll still be playing when they shut down the servers?

GW1 was made to be very very cheap to maintain, with extremelly small amounts of data recorded per account and extremelly low bandwidth usage per user logged in. It was very cheap by standards of 2005 and now into 2010 the technology went far ahead and it only gets cheaper.

For one thing, maintaining GW1 alive can be a great example for buyers of GW2 that this business model is not a failure and that they shouldn't be afraid to buy the new game with all its expansions and stuff because it will run longer than they would even expect it to run.

The only way they could shut down the servers would be the game becoming completely empty, with only like a couple hundred unique logins a day. I'd expect GW3 release sooner than that to happen and by then everyone who cares about it now will have long forgotten about it.

Now why would they do that?
Arenanet!=NCSoft

That said, NCSoft is the parent company who often makes deals, I still ain't following ya'

I'm hoping Anet releases the source code for private servers. We might actually get a good skill balance then.

The only balance change I want to see is one that turns this into Diablo.